Safe Spaces Indeed

Can we now please dispense with the notion that conservatives lamenting the end of free speech are principled Philosopher-Kings?

In fact, they're privileged assholes who want to ensure they are never criticized or mocked by people less famous and wealthy than they are?

Or that the Oberlin Student Council carries the same weight as Fox News?

The Boys -- What I Thunk Of It, With Spoilers

I liked it fine enough, but not nearly as much as a lot of critics and most of my nerdy friends did.  The set-up, via Heroes-As-Narcissistic-Politically-Motivated-Assholes?  Actually not that original, but still a cool idea!  The performances?  Mostly good, except for Karl Urban's inexplicable, terrible attempt at a cockney accent.  (Which I assumed a New Zealander wouldn't struggle with, but then again his dialogue was obviously written by an American high on bad Guy Ritchie movies.  That is, all of them.)

Things I did like?  Starlight's performance as the country-girl who quickly loses all illusions as to what's really going on.  (Apparently the source material is even more brutally rape-y.)  Homelander coming off not just as an arrogant jerk, but a truly psychopathic asshole.  A generally believable scenario where the interests of humanity are co-opted by corporate and government greed.

Things beyond Butcher's terrible lines that I didn't like?  I mean, I didn't hate The Deep's fish-out-of-water stuff (see what I did there?) but tonally, and even acknowledging a need for some comic relief, it felt like a different show.  And while the first half of the seasons sets up some interesting arcs, the second half seemed to want to generate ten new ones as bait for a second season.  (Something a lot of shows do these days, granted.)  And what about that terrorist super, The Captain?  Homelander flies all the way to Syria but doesn't confront the most pressing threat?  And the whole existential crisis of heroes being made, not "touched by God" or what have you?  Very under-cooked, especially with a sympathetic Christian character like Starlight.  And finally, why did Homelander kill the woman he's obviously, deeply, and creepily attached to as a Freudian mother-figure?

At the end of the day sure, I'll watch a second season.  But I'm not exactly dying for more.  I think people got swept up in the obvious excitement of the first few episodes and kind of let their critical guards down for some poor writing in the second half.

I Like America And America Likes Me

My nephew, with a freakin' hot-air balloon in the background, which apparently is a thing in my sister's lovely northern Maryland neighborhood.  Also, the behind of Periwinkle the dog (named after the snail, not the color, duh.)

In lovely Maryland we don't have sno-cones, we have "snoballs" and they're delicious and yummy.

My nephew is very into horses, both riding and taking care of them.  I know nothing about horses myself, except that they're huge and gorgeous.

And finally, it's become a family tradition for my sister to take me to an O's game every summer.  The Astros scraped out a win here, 23-2.  I'm the one who actually wanted to leave early, but my nephew was a trooper and had us stay for the whole thing.  (My god, am I going to curse him for life with being an Orioles fan?)

"Ten thousand afternoons ago / All my happiness just overflowed"

Purple Mountains, "All My Happiness Is Gone"

I like to think we all end up in a better place of our own choosing, eventually.

Blog activity is still light, despite the fact that I got back to South Korea last weekend.  I've worked out a few times and done two loads of laundry, so call that progress if you will.

America was a mixed bag, as always.  My dad is 90 now, and for obvious reasons it's getting more and more difficult to maintain healthy lines of communication, let alone a quality father-son relationship, with him.  I don't tend to get too personal on this here blog, but I'll be blunt -- a complicating factor is his live-in relationship with a highly toxic woman (nearly his age).

I mean, we're all assholes sometimes.  Lord knows I have my moments.  But I mean toxic in the fullest sense of the word -- poisonous, life-draining, harmful.  I'm guessing she's got some PTSD going on (she's a refugee from post World War II Germany) along with some serious narcissism and a very questionable relationship to telling the truth.

There's a lot more to say and nothing much at all, really.

Anyhow, for the second summer in a row, I cut short my visit and stayed in a hotel for my last two nights in Bellingham.  I knew I shouldn't let her get to me, but I did.  (In my defense, she threw a phone book at me.)  And here's the thing -- as long as my dad lives I'll never sleep in that house again.  (A house that me and my sister will have to deal with when the inevitable happens, and that I kind of want nothing to do with.)

Then there was Baltimore with my sister and nephew, and that was great as always.  We did stuff.  I did cannonballs onto said nephew in the swimming pool.  I walked a tiny but scarily energetic black dog around her neighborhood every morning for an hour or so.  We ate crabs and drank beer.  We watched the Orioles lose a ballgame 23-2 and stayed for the whole damn thing.  I watched my nephew ride and take care of great big horses.  My sister is dating a really nice guy and it might to lead to something more.

It was all good.

But this might be the time, when my contract ends in February, to head home.  It's way too much of a burden on my sister to deal with my Dad with only one visit from me every year.  If something terrible happens she'd be the "first responder," so to speak, and that's not fair to her and her quality of life and mind.  She's also devoted to a really great kid.

So what's my excuse?

We'll see.

Life is hard and complicated.  Our bodies and brains will break down no matter how hard we wish they wouldn't.

I mean, I should be grateful for my dad to be 90, when my mom left due to cancer at 50, right?

"You got Tennessee tendencies / And chemical dependencies"

Silver Jews, "Suffering Jukebox"

It's impossible to pick just one Dave Berman tune, but damn if the entire lyrics for this one are just pure and amazing.

I'm back from America.  The visit to Baltimore to see my sister and nephew was amazing, as usual.  My visit to see Dad in Bellingham was, just like last year, very rough and depressing.  I think I'll have more to say once I recover from the jet-lag and decompress a bit.

Jesus Christ, I can't believe we lost Dave Berman.  He lived a bit too honestly for comfort, I take it.